


Rash Decisions

by camichats



Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [61]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Baby Harry, Character Death, First Kiss, First War with Voldemort, Getting Together, James Lives, Lily Lives, Love Confessions, M/M, Pretend James/Lily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 00:38:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14944347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Sirius gets to Godric's Hollow in time to save James, Lily, and Harry. With the fright of his life, he confesses to James.





	Rash Decisions

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: “Hi, if you're not too busy, could you write a story in which Sirius arrives at Godric's Hollow right in time to save the Potters from Voldemort please? Thank you!! :)” And “Please write a prompt where Sirius makes the first move on James? Please and thank you! Also I love your writing, it's all so amazing!" 
> 
> Also if it wasn't clear, the character death tag refers to Voldy.

Later, James would remember the night as a strange blur, even before Voldemort showed up. He and Lily had been talking about… something, he couldn’t remember what. Maybe the war, maybe just the fact that it was Halloween and they hadn’t been able to take Harry. When they first went into hiding while Lily was pregnant, they’d talked about his first holidays. The first Halloween he missed was understandable, even expected, but they’d thought that by this time they’d be free. Wars always lasted longer in person than in the history books.

Harry was having trouble getting to sleep, and they took turns going into his room to try and calm him down. Just when they thought he was _finally_ asleep, he started screaming his head off. Lily had started going up the stairs, and their front door exploded.

He thinks he yelled something to Lily. He reached for his wand only to realise that he didn’t have it; he’d left it in Harry’s room. Voldemort had been there and he was raising his wand and all of a sudden he was falling, not James, and Sirius was standing behind him, eyes wide and full of panic. That’s what he remembered most: the terror etched into every line of Sirius’s face.

“James,” he said, voice tight. “Are you okay?”

He nodded numbly, reaching up to rub at his chest where his heart was trying to beat its way out of his ribs. “Lily?” he called. “Do you have Harry?”

There was an extended pause, and the door to Harry’s room opened slowly. “Everything okay?” she asked hesitantly, not coming down the stairs yet-- definitely the right move.

“Yeah. Sirius is here,” he added.

Lily came into view, glanced at Voldemort’s body, and put her hand up to shield Harry’s eyes from seeing it. Harry didn’t seem to mind, sucking on his thumb and resting his head on her shoulder. His face was red from screaming, but it looked like he was done with that now. “You know, Sirius,” she said thickly, “next time you can just knock.”

“Yeah, I’ll- I’ll remember that.”

Lily shifted, holding out a wand to James. “Here.”

Sirius stared at him. “You forgot your buggering wand?” he hissed.

“Language,” Lily said automatically, sounding a bit faint.

“Maybe we should go,” James suggested.

“Dumbledore’s checking on Frank and Alice, and then he’ll be here. I can stay here, you can…” He waved vaguely, meaning they could leave.

“I’m not leaving you,” James said.

Lily hugged Harry tighter to her. “I think we should stay together.”

Sirius took a deep breath, but nodded. He edged around Voldemort’s corpse to stand by James, and he grabbed his hand with an iron grip-- he gave Harry and Lily quick kisses on the cheek. James held on just as tightly. Sirius told them that Peter was the traitor; they didn’t have anything to say to that. It seemed like no time at all when Dumbledore and McGonagall showed up, Frank, Alice, and little Neville in tow. “Go with Minerva, she’ll take you someplace safe.”

They moved towards McGonagall, who was holding a rusty car rim as a portkey.

“Did you find him?” Sirius asked.

Dumbledore shook his head, a weary sort of sadness about him. “Not yet. Go get some rest.”

The portkey brought them to a large house, well-kept but undeniably unused. The Longbottom’s went quietly to their assigned room, a small exchange letting everyone know they could talk and catch up tomorrow, when they were less unsettled.

“Lily,” McGonagall said quietly, so as to not wake Harry, “I thought you and Harry could take this room if James and Sirius don’t mind sharing.” Both men shook their head, mumbling that it was okay. “Then you boys will be right down there. Sleep well everyone.”

James brushed a light kiss to Harry’s head so he wouldn’t wake him and hugged Lily. Sirius gave Lily a hug as well, telling her that if she needed anything she should come by. They went to the room they were sharing, and stood there silently, not knowing what to do.

“You got your wand?”

“Yeah.” James put his hand in his pocket to make sure it was still there.

Sirius nodded to himself. “Okay.” He moved closer to James, close enough that if they were in public, they’d be talking about something personal. “Please don’t hex me too hard for this,” he said, and that was all the warning James got before Sirius was gripping his face and kissing him desperately.

James was too shocked to react by the time Sirius pulled away.

He took a step back, not looking at James. His hands were shaking, and he raised the back of one to his mouth. “Sorry,” he whispered. “I’ll sleep on the couch, I just- I had to do that.” He raised his other arm and wrapped it around his stomach. “You nearly died, and I never told you…” He shook his head, dropping his hand from his mouth to hook around his other arm’s elbow, and shuffled backwards towards the door. “Goodnight James.” He looked heartbroken when James didn’t say anything, didn’t move so much as a centimeter.

He turned around and had a hand on the doorknob when James burst out, “Wait!” Sirius paused. “Why’d you kiss me?”

Sirius laughed without a touch of humor. “Why do you think? Everybody knows. _Everybody_. When you and Lily had to pretend to get married, she asked me how I was holding up. For the two weeks after that, everybody I ran into asked me if I was doing alright.” James didn’t know what to say to that, so Sirius continued, “And when I said I was fine, they thought I was lying.” He let go of the doorknob and turned around. “You remember the drinking nights me and Remus went on and you were never invited?” James nodded numbly. “That’s when I was allowed to talk about how buggering gorgeous you were, and Remus couldn’t get mad at me.” Sirius shrugged helplessly. “You can’t claim you didn’t know, James, it was really buggering obvious.”

“But I _didn’t_ know,” he said desperately.

“How could you possibly not know?”

“Because I’ve asked you out before! Countless times at Hogwarts. And each and every time you would invite Remus and Peter to come along. Eventually I had to give up because it hurt too much to have you turn me down like that.”

“You- you never asked me out,” Sirius said, determined to believe it wasn’t true.

“I asked you to Three Broomsticks more times than there were Hogsmeade weekends. I invited you to the Astronomy Tower once-- a known snogging spot-- and you still thought I meant the Marauders. You- you really fancied me? This whole time?”

Sirius nodded, shamefaced. James strode over to him and pressed him into the door, kissing him until they were both breathless and panting.

“Today’s been…” James trailed off, leaning his forehead against Sirius’s. “Let’s get some sleep.” He kissed him again. “And you’re not going to run away before I wake up. I love you like- like a thousand shitty poems I don’t understand, and we’re not going to lose anymore time together. I love you, and we’re talking about this more tomorrow.”

Sirius swallowed thickly, blinking back tears. “I love you too. And you’re not allowed to run away either.”

James nodded. “That’s fair. Love you,” he said again, because he needed to imprint that in Sirius’s mind.

“Love you too,” Sirius repeated.

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt driven blog @[imaginejamesandsirius](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com) on tumblr. Feel free to drop by!


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